Organizations such as on-line retailers, Internet service providers, search providers, financial institutions, universities, and other computing-intensive organizations often conduct computer operations from large scale computing facilities. Such computing facilities house and accommodate a large amount of server, network, and computer equipment to process, store, and exchange data as needed to carry out an organization's operations. Typically, a computer room of a computing facility includes many server racks. Each server rack, in turn, includes many servers and associated computer equipment.
Computer systems typically include a number of components that generate waste heat. Such components include printed circuit boards, mass storage devices, power supplies, and processors. For example, some computers with multiple processors may generate 250 watts of waste heat. Some known computer systems include a plurality of such larger, multiple-processor computers that are configured into rack-mounted components, and then are subsequently positioned within a racking system. Some known racking systems include 40 such rack-mounted components and such racking systems will therefore generate as much as 10 kilowatts of waste heat. Moreover, some known data centers include a plurality of such racking systems. Some known data centers include methods and apparatus that facilitate waste heat removal from a plurality of racking systems, typically by circulating air through one or more of the rack systems.
Many data centers rely on forced air systems and air conditioning to maintain the temperatures and other environmental conditions in the data center within acceptable limits. In one existing arrangement for a rack-based computer system, cooling air is introduced at the one end of a rack and expelled through the other end of the rack. In many systems, electrical connections for power and data are located the hot end of the rack system. With the electrical connections located at hot end of the rack, personnel may be forced to work in a hot environment to maintain the servers (for example, to connect and disconnect power and data cables).
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.